11.30.2011

changes to our laundry room (plus a few thoughts)

Hello! Are you still there? How was your Thanksgiving? We had a great time "up north" filled with a significant amount of eating, and absolutely no computer time. I did however work with two different clients, rather last minute, so I'm looking forward to possibly sharing those projects with you. One has such huge potential that I'm very excited. On a more serious note, this week has been filled with loss. Two of my friends lost their mothers, one friend had a miscarriage, and Jay's grandmother is suddenly not doing well at all. They're even using the words "failure to thrive". Publishing posts about design just didn't seem all that important. I write this not for pity, but in hopes that if you're of the praying type, that you would pray for supernatural strength for these women. But it's Wednesday, and time to get back to it!

It all started with a light. For some reason, many of the lights in our new house were florescent. Please, never ever install florescent lighting in your home. It's never a good idea. So when the light bulb went out in our laundry room and it wasn't easily accessible at the hardware store, we decided to just get a new fixture. No sense in ordering a special bulb for a light we don't even like!

I started at Lowe's and Home Depot. I didn't want to spend a ton of money in our laundry room. I was surprised to discover that even the ugly flush mount lights were more money than I wanted to spend. I couldn't find anything at Lowe's. Then, I saw this pretty little piece at Home Depot!

I realize it's not what might come to mind when you think "laundry room", but when I saw it in the store I could walk away. It's just too pretty. ;-)

Let's take a look at how the room looks this morning...

It's not horrible and it's not awesome. It's certainly not the worst room in the house, but now that we had to get a new light, I want to make the rest of the room fit the light.

Here's my plan:

This isn't a major overhaul, just a little update. So I'm leaving the walls as they are, painting the cabinets "gunmetal" by Benjamin Moore, and adding new pulls to the cabinets. I'm excited to see how it feels put together. Laundry is not my favorite task but I'm thinking these changes will motivate me to spend a little more time there! Would you install a "fancy" light in your laundry room? Or do you think I've lost my design mind?

Love the Gun Metal color, great choice and those knobs will really give the room a whole new look! Sorry to hear about those losses in your life, I always find great comfort in prayer and there is always room to add more people to the list!

Love it! And i can't believe you found it at Home Depot! I've always wanted a laundry room with a chandelier - may as well make a gruelling chore feel glam!So sorry to hear all the sad news - I'm sending my prayers xo

So sorry to hear about all this loss. I think the hardest thing about blogs (I felt this way with my mom-blog as well as my design blog), is the way "the blog must go on," and sometimes seems disconnected from life. Glad you took a break. Glad to see you back.

I wish we were neighbors so I could come check out all the updates in your home and give you a hug. Thanks for keeping it real Abby - our loved ones are THE most important that's for sure. And I would certainly install a pretty light fixture in a laundry area. Yours is good size too which is great! I see you are loving your new Anthro in town - I'm assuming those pulls are from there. And I love the small updates that you make to enjoy a space more - I'm all about that! Glad to hear from you and excited about your potential projects too.

I definitely don't pretend to understand how things like that happen to such wonderful people...or a good way to deal with them...beside a lot of prayer (c: Sending some your way, dearest! And as for the laundry room, I spend so much time in mine that I would *LOVE* it if it was a space that I actually *liked* to be in, I say go for it!

Sending prayers your way Abby. Yes, on the light! And funny you're looking at the gray color - I want to do a silver/gray wall color with periwinkle/slate-blue cabinets. I have no idea why but just want something totally different for the laundry room/mud room. Great progress! I saw the dining room update too. We still have 8 1/2 of 11 areas to update here. trudging along...

I hate when there is loss on or near a holiday...it is such a reminder at that time every year. So sorry.On a lighter note...love your new plan for the laundry room. Hey why not put a fancy light in there...try to make laundry glam!!!Let me know how that works for you :)

Abby Manchesky Interiors is a boutique design firm based in Grand Rapids, MI. Combining the new traditional, vintage and a dash of the unexpected is her ideal. Contact Abby Manchesky Interiors for more information on available interior design services for clients near and far. abbyminteriors@gmail.com | 616.719.9400